Category Archives for iPad mini knockoffs

“Amazon’s Kindle Fire is not selling as well as expected, says Pacific Crest analyst Chad Bartley,” Jay Yarow reports for Business Insider. “Bartley is cutting his estimate for the holiday quarter to 6 million units, down from 8 million, according to Tiernan Ray at Barron’s who has the note.”

“For next year, he’s projecting sales of just 10.5 million units, down from his previous estimate of 12.5 million,” Yarow reports. “Why is Bartley calling for such a low 2013 prediction? He tells Ray over email that demand for the Kindle Fire is very weak and ‘the Fire seems to be a highly seasonal item.’”

Yarow reports, “This is something we observed last year… We called the Kindle Fire the ‘fruitcake of tablets.’ A lot of people bought Kindle Fires during the holidays because they were relatively inexpensive, but nice-seeming presents. But when it was time to buy a tablet for themselves, they didn’t buy a Fire because it’s not actually all that good.”

“Much has been said about how Apple’s ecosystem still allows it an intrinsic advantage over competitors such as Google’s Android or Microsoft’s Windows Phone,” Paulo Santos explains via Seeking Alpha. “What I will add in this article, however, is my belief that an architecture decision by Apple has also given it an intrinsic and durable advantage over Google’s Android OS.”

“This intrinsic advantage allows Apple to run Apps in its devices faster than those same Apps would run on Android devices with comparable hardware specs; or alternatively, to consume less power when running at the same speed,” Santos writes. “This is non-trivial for Apple, for both performance and power consumption come at a premium in battery-reliant mobile devices. It’s also non-trivial because an architecture decision is something which stays rather immutable over long periods of time, so any advantage gained is hard to overcome.”

Santos writes, “To make an App for iOS, programmers usually use Objective C (C and C++ can also be used. These programs are then compiled into native code that runs directly on iOS devices. As for Android, the programmers will usually use Java, which will get compiled into Dalvik-compatible bytecode. Then, at runtime, these programs will rely on the Dalvik JVM Java Virtual Machine) to translate the bytecode to native code on the fly. The JVM can also use JIT (Just In Time compiling to produce native code for instances where such can render faster code execution.”

“The problem here is that translating code at runtime, or compiling at runtime, can have a serious impact on performance versus just running native code directly. Theoretically the JIT compiler could target the specific hardware the program is running on and produce faster code, but since Apple’s compiler also targets a very limited set of hardware, such advantage is nullified. What isn’t nullified, though, are the disadvantages introduced by the need to translate or compile at runtime,” Santos writes. “This, in turn, produces the unsung Apple advantage. Apple gets, for the same hardware specs, an intrinsic performance advantage.”

Rampant, debilitating fragmentationInsecurity that will only get worse (both on their devices and in their minds)Second-rate and worse apps, a smaller app libraryDevelopers second-thought effort or no effort at allAn increasingly expensive (royalties for patent infringement) platform which makes device assemblers cut even more corners and/or focus on alternativesEnvy of iOS devices and their vibrant, thriving ecosystemShoddy plastic devices from unfocused companies that manufacture everything from refrigerators to backhoesThe conscious or subconscious knowledge of using a knockoff of an Apple device (if you’re American, or call yourself one, a foreign – Korean or Chinese, most likely – knockoff of a U.S company’s device)A markedly weaker choice of accessoriesPoor or non-existent vehicle integrationEtc.

I don’t know which is worse: Samsung’s slavish copying or that there are tens of millions of dullards and/or morally-crippled consumers who would buy such obvious knockoffs. What kind of person rewards thieves, especially such obvious ones? What kind of person hands over their money to make sure that crime pays? What’s wrong with you people, exactly?

It makes me sad that there are outfits like Samsung Electronics on the planet, as I was with Microsoft before them. People who work for Samsung Electronics should be ashamed. It makes me even sadder to see people supporting blatant criminals, whether it be blindly or, worse, knowingly. To those people I say: Get some morals, will you, or how about at least acquiring a modicum of taste?

What you’re doing is supporting criminal activity. It’s like you’re buying knockoff Coach handbags, but you’re paying pretty much the Coach price! Not too smart, eh? Oh, sure, you might have “saved” a bit upfront on your fake iPhone (maybe you got one of those Buy One Get One or More Free deals), but you’re paying the same data rates – after a couple years, you’ve pretty much paid the same anyway! So, in the end, you’re saving little or nothing while:

a) depriving the company who basically inspired your inferior, fragmented product;b) depriving yourself of the real deal and the real experience, and;c) rewarding the criminal, encouraging them to steal even more.

Not a lot of sense being made in any aspect of your toting around that Android phone, is there? Oh, right it’s “open.” Smirk. And, yes, every one of us with the real thing knows that you’re carrying around a half-assed fake, you tasteless wonder.

Didn’t you people have parents? If so, what did they teach you, if anything? Sheesh.

SteveJack’s Take originally published on August 6, 2012. SteveJack is a pen name used by a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a contributor to both MacDailyNews Takes and the Opinion section.